TY - JOUR A1 - Fanselow, Gisbert A1 - Schlesewsky, Matthias A1 - Vogel, Ralf A1 - Weskott, Thomas T1 - Animacy effects on crossing wh-movement in German JF - Linguistics : an interdisciplinary journal of the language sciences N2 - This article presents several acceptability rating experiments concerned with crossing wh-movement in German multiple questions. Our results show that there is no general superiority effect in German, thus refuting claims to the contrary by Featherston (2005). However, acceptability is reduced when a wh-phrase crosses a wh-subject with which it agrees in animacy. We explain this finding in terms of the availability of different sorting keys for the answers to the multiple questions. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/LING.2011.021 SN - 0024-3949 VL - 49 IS - 4 SP - 657 EP - 683 PB - De Gruyter Mouton CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Höhle, Barbara A1 - Hoernig, Robin A1 - Weskott, Thomas A1 - Knauf, Selene A1 - Krueger, Agnes T1 - Effects of focus and definiteness on children's word order: evidence from German five-year-olds' reproductions of double object constructions JF - Journal of child language N2 - Two experiments tested how faithfully German children aged 4; 5 to 5; 6 reproduce ditransitive sentences that are unmarked or marked with respect to word order and focus (Exp1) or definiteness (Exp2). Adopting an optimality theory (OT) approach, it is assumed that in the German adult grammar word order is ranked lower than focus and definiteness. Faithfulness of children's reproductions decreased as markedness of inputs increased; unmarked structures were reproduced most faithfully and unfaithful outputs had most often an unmarked form. Consistent with the OT proposal, children were more tolerant against inputs marked for word order than for focus; in conflict with the proposal, children were less tolerant against inputs marked for word order than for definiteness. Our results suggest that the linearization of objects in German double object constructions is affected by focus and definiteness, but that prosodic principles may have an impact on the position of a focused constituent. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000913000196 SN - 0305-0009 SN - 1469-7602 VL - 41 IS - 4 SP - 780 EP - 810 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hörnig, Robin A1 - Weskott, Thomas T1 - Given and new information in spatial statements Y1 - 2010 SN - 978-0-19-957095-9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weskott, Thomas A1 - Fanselow, Gisbert T1 - On the informativity of different measures of linguistic acceptability JF - Language : journal of the Linguistic Society of America N2 - This article deals with the claim that the MAGNITUDE ESTIMATION (ME) method of gathering acceptability judgments produces data that are more informative for linguists than binary or n-point scale judgments. We performed three acceptability-rating experiments that directly compared ME data to binary and seven-point scale data. The results clearly falsify the hypothesis that data gathered by the ME method carry a larger amount of information about the acceptability of a given linguistic phenomenon. The three measures are largely equivalent with respect to informativity. Moreover, ME judgments are shown to be more liable to producing spurious variance under certain circumstances.* KW - acceptability judgments KW - empirical syntax KW - magnitude estimation KW - informativity Y1 - 2011 SN - 0097-8507 VL - 87 IS - 2 SP - 249 EP - 273 PB - Linguistic Society of America CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Féry, Caroline A1 - Kaiser, Elsi A1 - Hörnig, Robin A1 - Weskott, Thomas A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - Perception of intonational contours on given and new referents : a completion study and an eye-movement experiment Y1 - 2009 SN - 978-3-11-021922-7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weskott, Thomas T1 - Stopn bashing givenness! a note on Elke Kasimir's "Question-answer test and givenness" Y1 - 2005 SN - 3-937786-01-5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hörnig, Robin A1 - Weskott, Thomas A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold A1 - Fanselow, Gisbert T1 - Word order variation in spatial descriptions with adverbs N2 - Previous research has shown that in a three-term spatial reasoning task, the second premise of a German premise pair is especially easy to comprehend if (1) the prepositional object rather than the grammatical subject denotes the given entity, and if (2) the term denoting the given entity precedes the term denoting the new entity. Accordingly, the second premise is easiest to comprehend with noncanonical word order-that is, with the prepositional object in preverbal position denoting the given entity (e.g., To the right of the given object is the new subject). This finding is explained in terms of contextual licensing of noncanonical word order. Here, we discuss and tested two alternative accounts of contextual licensing, given-new and partially ordered set relations (Poset). The given-new account claims that noncanonical word order is licensed by the term denoting the given entity preceding the term denoting the new entity. On the Poset account, noncanonical word order is licensed if the preverbal constituent introduces a new entity that stands in a transitive, irreflexive, and asymmetric relation to a given entity. Comprehension times for second premises with spatial adverbs in four different word orders support both accounts of contextual licensing; Poset licensing was stronger than given-new licensing. Y1 - 2006 UR - http://www.springerlink.com/content/0090-502x/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193264 SN - 0090-502X ER -